Mel

Would be interested in hearing views on this brand-new resort.

Sheila

I stayed at the Hyatt around mid-May for 5 nights. Type in Hyatt in conjunction with a St. Lucia search and you'll read some general impressions. If you have specific questions, feel free to ask on this forum/email.

lonya

Are you referring to the Hyatt on Pigeon Island? If so, I can help.

Lonya

Tracey

For a little anecdotal advice...

Our St Lucian taxi driver said the local scuttle on the Hyatt is that it stole all of the best employees from the other resorts by paying nearly double their salary. He had several friends who had jumped ship from other resorts to work at the new Hyatt. Take that for what it's worth... (Often, the locals know what's up before us silly tourist! ).

Tracey

Sheila

Its true about they Hyatt stealing employees from other resorts. With some exceptions, that tactic worked too. We encountered some rather exceptional service in general. However, the Hyatt displayed many "new hotel/mediocre hotel" behavior during my stay. When our room's air conditioner malfunctioned, resulting in humid, warm, and stuffy conditions since we were asked to keep the terrace doors closed (to keep the tropical bugs out), we waited for hours before receiving attention. A maintenance man came up and worked on the unit for a while and then assured us it was fixed. After tossing and turning all night waiting for the room to cool, we called the front desk around 5am. The night manager told us to pack so we could be moved. So, we did and waited around for an hour for the go ahead. My husband exasperatedly went to the front desk and asked for some movement. Finally, one employee, Malcolm, stepped in and took charge. One hour later, they found us a room to move to, explaining that the air-conditioning was working there. We moved and it didn't feel particularly cool so we mentioned this. They assured us that we just needed to give it time. Well, we hung out at the beach all day and returned to a warm room. Maintenance worked for hours (no exxageration - they kept coming back when we insisted it still wasn't working) and the rooms manager found more rooms for us to move to. He offered to upgrade us to the club level. That was extremely annoying since we were already had club level access, in fact reserving it months before our arrival. Anyways, around 10pm, the air-conditioning started working.
The air-conditioning malfuntion was no biggie. How the Hyatt handled the situation was insulting and generally incompetent. We spoke to the general manager, Dale McDaniel. When he started telling me the story about the air-conditioning not existing when the trainers came in before the hotel opened, explaining that they worked, drenched with sweat, I realized that their incompetency had a root cause.
That was our first experience at a Hyatt resort in the Caribbean. I looked forward to our stay there, given the high ratings in the Conde Nast Gold list and the added comfort of having a Club room.
However, the staff in general (not management), were so friendly and pleasant, our stay was salvaged by the atmosphere that created. We were treated to almost unbelievably wonderful service by non-management staff. Perhaps their employee poaching should have extended in the management ranks too.
Overall, we enjoyed our stay. I'll be happy to answer any specific questions.